Wednesday, May 22, 2019

If you are
a bookish-minded person with an interest in Middle Eastern history and culture,
you might likely find The World in a
Book: al-Nuwayri and the Islamic Encyclopedic Tradition (Princeton, 2018),
to be a good introduction to the medieval concept of adab (i.e., wide ranging literary works reflective of the
author/compiler’s cultural cred).We are
fortunate that the Shihab al-Din al-Nuwayri the enormous work that is the subject of
this study, compiled in thirty-one volumes in the early 14th century, survived
intact so that a modern edition, published over many years (alas, seemingly
only in Arabic), could be prepared in the twentieth century.Al-Nuwayri, an official of the Mamluk court,
whose duties largely had to do with financial and real estate management for
the sultan al-Nasir Muhammad, decided at the end
of his career to embark on an enterprise not uncommon to cultured members of
high Islamic society, the preparation of a vast compendium of universal
knowledge encompassing natural history (zoology, astronomy and the like),
history (secular and religious, although the distinction was not likely made),
instructions for court officials (particularly scribes) and whatever else
piqued his interest.

In
addition to preparing this study, Elias Muhanna is also the translator of the
only English edition of the original text, translated as The Ultimate Ambition in the Arts of Erudition, a volume in the
Penguin Classics series published in 2016.I won’t go into that edition too much except to say that, for most, the
introduction to that work is quite adequate in introducing al-Nuwayri’s work,
without the scholarly apparatus.I’m
delighted that this translation has been made, and the selection is interesting
enough (the other night I read several selections relating to the Islamic
version of the story of Adam and Eve), but when you consider that this is the
winnowing down of a thirty-one volume work, it seems quite inadequate, and I
believe that it would have benefitted from an enlargement with a taste of some
of the more esoteric selections.But
then, this is my issue with other works of this sort, such as the Pliny’s Natural History, also published by
Penguin (among other editions). I have a
personal animus towards abridgements (although there’s no way in hell I would
have ever gotten through al-Nuwayri’s work anyway, it would be comforting to
know that it’s there).

For The World in a Book, Muhanna has
prepared a study that seems to be aimed more towards the scholar than the
general reader.Clearly well researched,
Muhanna tends to write in an academic vernacular that can be grating (elide? [p.108], really?).I’ve heard him on a podcast, and he seems to
speak this way too.Further, he seems
more often than not inclined to pass off to future scholars questions that
require a bit deeper consideration.Still, for a committed biblio-enthusiast, this is an absorbing study
that digs into the origins and context of a fascinating and forgotten work.If you share my interest in Middle
Eastern/Islamic history and thought, I’d say this is well worth reading.

Monday, May 06, 2019

I've been enjoying reading the last volume of Richard Perceval Graves's unnecessarily gentle biography of his uncle, the poet Robert Graves. Graves was certainly an eccentric, and rather manipulative to boot, which the younger Graves seeks to downplay. It occurred to me that I don't believe I've ever heard Robert Graves speak, so I went looking for an interview and found this piece from 1965 with notable British prick Malcolm Muggeridge, whom Graves admirably tolerates.By the way, despite my near total lack of media savvy (I still blog, for God's sake) I now post to Twitter: just photos of my books and other curiosities, under the name Bibliophilia Obscura.

Friday, March 22, 2019

My presumption is that when he published a portion of these
key texts in 1927, W. Y. Evans-Wentz chose this title to mirror that of
Wallis-Budge’s 1895 translation of the Papyrus of Ani, now and forever known as
The Egyptian Book of the Dead.It turns out that the document we know as The Tibetan Book of the Dead (a more
accurate title of which is The Great
Liberation by Hearing) is but a portion of a larger corpus of materials
discussing Tibetan Buddhist concepts of death, and the passage from this plane
of existence into that intermediate state.Penguin’s extraordinary volume, published in 2006 and available not only
as a trade paperback but also as a volume of their Penguin Classics series
(2008, reprinted with corrections in 2017), rectifies the omission with a new
and lucid translation.

Counting the Evans-Wentz translation and others by Robert
Thurman (Quality Paperback Book Club, 1994) and Francesca Freemantle/Chogyam
Trumpa (Shambala, 1975), this is the fourth version of this work I have
acquired over the years, and, despite my fondness for Evans-Wentz’s weird and
wonderful translation and commentary, published as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, or the After-Death Experiences on the
Bardo Plane by Oxford University Press (with The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, or the Method of Realizing
Nirvana Through Knowing the Mind as a companion volume), this is now my
favorite.*

An excellent feature of this volume is the introductory
essay by the Dalai Lama, which places this material in context of the Tibetan
Buddhist concept of the self and its relationship to existence.This is a thoughtful piece of writing that
merits close attention in preparing the reader for the different texts included
in this publication.As explained in the
general introduction, this translation was vetted and deeply informed by
consultation with masters of Highest Yoga Tantra, the preferred name of the tradition
to which these documents belong.This
lends a value and credibility to this translation, which I’m sure will become
the standard one.

Now, having said that, get yourself ready for some strange,
sometimes difficult, sometimes enlightening reading (and be sure to read Book 5
out loud, for merely by saying the names of the deities listed within “one will
avoid rebirth in the lower existences, and Buddhahood will eventually be
attained”).The perspective here is
clearly not of the West, and that may require some getting used to – but no
worries.Maybe the best approach is to
read each section through with an open mind, awake to the possibilities of the
esoteric perspectives being expounded.A
return for a more close reading would then likely be in order.

The preliminary books consist of prayers, supplications, acknowledgement
of the peaceful and wrathful deities, acknowledgement of the power of those
deities, requests for forgiveness for having strayed from the path, prayers of
gratitude, enumeration of some of the omens of impending death, guidance on how
to know what form of existence one is likely to pass on to, the means of knowing
when death is imminent, and rituals which might assist in averting one’s
death.The essence of the text, of
course, is the chapters on consciousness transference and the great liberation
by hearing.By the guidance of one’s associates (which would
typically be other monks, because, due to their complexity and degree of personal
investment, these are essentially monastic rituals), one’s consciousness is
guided and comforted as it passes through the intermediate or transitional states
(usually translated as the bardo
states, with the guidance text referred to as the Bardo Thodol, however that nomenclature is not used here).From here, one may pass into one of the
innumerable heavens (or hells), rebirth on one of the physical planes, or, much
more rarely, some version of nirvana.One seeks, through these rituals, to pass through to the highest state
of which one is capable of in this existence.

The texts are repetitive and trancelike, meant to be spoken
out loud and presumably, through their repetitiveness, inductive of a
trancelike and opened state of consciousness.Bear in mind that some of these texts are meant to be repeated literally
tens of thousands of time.Ultimately,
the teachings, through contemplation and repetition become internalized and one
acquires great merit through diligence and understanding. This is not a task
for the dilettante, and in the cultural context of Tibetan monasticism there is
significant preparation required before one is even exposed to these texts.

Still, by reading the texts, and giving oneself over to
them, a rewarding experience may be had – a change of awareness or a change of
perspective that is expansive. The
experience can be an immersive one if approached with the correct frame of
mind.Maybe, like me, you’ll find
yourself drawn back again and again for a taste of a different reality and a
means to gain a transformed perspective of the world.

*You may be interested to know that Evans-Wentz also wrote a
volume entitled The Fairy Faith in Celtic
Countries, which was recently republished by The Lost Library, Glastonbury
(n.d.)